Authorities ask for help solving fatal Hope Mills shooting

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Fayetteville, N.C. — Cumberland County investigators asked Tuesday for the public's help to solve the shooting of a mother killed in front of her home last week.

Deputies distributed fliers near Hope Mills, asking people if they saw any suspicious people or vehicles in the Taylors Creek Mobile Home Park, off U.S. Highway 301, last Tuesday night, when Felicia Diggs Williams, 34, was found shot in front of a home in the 3000 block of Paddlefish Drive.

"It makes you very nervous, especially, you know, having young kids," neighbor Celina Sherwood said Tuesday. "This is stuff you hear about on TV and in books. It doesn't happen in real life."

Sherwood said she heard gunshots, followed by screams, when Williams was shot.

"I threw the kids in the bathroom – away from any windows– because I didn't know if it was just an isolated incident or if there was still stuff going on," she said.

Sherwood's husband, a nurse, ran over to Williams' home, thinking he could help.

"Everybody was out. Everybody was over there. It was just mass chaos," Sherwood said.

Investigators haven't provided any details of a possible motive or a description of a suspect or a vehicle. They have said they believe the shooting wasn't random violence.

Williams and two Fayetteville men, Deldrick Sanders, 22, and Larry Donnell Everette, 29, were indicted in Arkansas in March on cocaine distribution charges. She and Sanders were released on bail, while Everett was arrested Oct. 31 and booked into an Arkansas jail.

Detectives said they don't know whether the drug charges have anything to do with Williams' death.

Neighbors said she moved into the mobile home park with her twin boys and daughter over the summer. All three children were home when she was shot and taken away to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, where she died.

"It's been pretty rough," Sherwood said. "Six days before the shooting, we were broken into."

She and other neighbors simply want the killer to be caught.

"Everybody now is kind of like on a tight leash, just kind of watching your child more," neighbor Tony Nance said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at 910-323-1500.